Leave a legacy

You can choose to direct your support in a number of ways and we are happy to discuss with you which option is right for you.

Unrestricted gifts

Choosing to give your gift with no restrictions is especially valuable, as it allows the University to direct it to where the need is greatest at the time we receive your gift. This could be funding scholarships for students, helping to fund an innovative new research project, or ensuring our buildings and facilities can be transformed for the next generation of learners.

Strategic Priorities

Gifts to the University support our strategy to enrich our academic work in the pursuit of excellence in education, research and knowledge exchange through collaboration with our federal members; developing academic programmes, networks and partnerships that further our federation’s goals across London, the UK and internationally.

Strategic Objectives

• We are committed to furthering our position as the UK’s leading provider of distance learning worldwide, delivering cutting-edge programmes to increased numbers of people who can benefit most from education
• We will continue to stimulate innovative intellectual exchange and effective public engagement, drawing on our expertise across the University in the humanities, distance learning, careers and employability, and inclusivity/widening access
• We strive to develop and continuously adapt our organisation and capacity to anticipate the university of the future.

Please let us know if you would like to support one of these priority areas, or if you would like your gift to support a particular programme or Institute. To find out more about the University’s 2020-2025 strategy, Transforming Education… Creating Futures, please visit our strategy page.

Endowment

Legacy gifts to the University’s endowment are an ideal way to support our future. Gifts to the endowment are permanent assets, invested wisely to grow and provide secure income in the long-term, allowing the University to plan ahead. Some of the previous gifts to our endowment provide annual income for scholarships and prizes across the University, supporting the next generation of University of London students. If you are interested in supporting the endowment, please contact us to discuss further.

Suggested wording for making a provision in your Will is provided below. 

Those in the UK can find general information about leaving a gift in your Will to charity by visiting gov.uk

This does not constitute legal or tax advice, and it is strongly recommended that you seek independent professional legal and tax advice - including to ensure that the drafting works alongside the wider provisions of your Will and is suitable for the gift that you intend to make.

‘I give to the University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, an exempt charity and Statutory Corporation in England and Wales (Company No. RC000661)/ HMRC Charities Reference X422

• The residue of my estate and the income of it
• or {a percentage} of the residue of my estate and the income of it
• or the sum of £{amount} free of tax
• or {specific item} free of tax

...for its general charitable purposes, and I declare that the receipt of a proper officer of the University shall be a sufficient discharge to my executors who shall not be required to enquire as to the application of this gift.’

Our legacy donors are valued members of our community of alumni and friends, and we are delighted to recognise their generous support through The 1836 Society.

As part of The 1836 Society, we will invite you to special events and activities taking place at the University’s Senate House headquarters in London and around the world, as a thank you for your generosity. If you wish, we would be pleased to recognise your support on our online donor board, in our annual fundraising report The Effect of Giving, on our website, and in other publications.

Depending on the size of your gift, there may also be an opportunity to name a fund or a physical space in your honour, or in honour of a loved one or other esteemed person. Speaking with the University about your plans can ensure any wording or naming can be agreed with you in advance.

While the University cannot offer estate planning advice, knowing about your plans to leave a legacy can help us ensure that your gift has the most impact, and that it is directed to the programme or area of the University you most wish to support. Where you choose to share your plans with us, this will enable us to give you the assurance that the University is able to carry out your wishes, or to discuss alternatives with you. It also enables us to thank you for your generosity and ensure that we send you appropriate correspondence going forward.

If you have already included a legacy to the University in your Will, are considering leaving a legacy to the University, or would like to receive more information about this type of giving, please contact the Development Office on +44 (0)20 7862 8009 or email development@london.ac.uk. Alternatively, you can complete our online Legacy Intention Form. 

For more information on legacy giving, please contact the Development Office on +44 (0)20 7862 8009 or email development@london.ac.uk.

Jesse supports the University of London in a number of ways, including by making provisions in his Will to leave a donation to support our work. Here, we hear more about what inspired Jesse to support the University in this way.

Q and A with Jesse Cantrill

Jesse, thank you so much for remembering the University of London in your Will. Tell us a little about your connection to the University.

I did the MSc degree in Organisational Behaviour through the External Program (now the University of London distance and flexible learning programmes) in the 1990's. As I was an older student, I developed a professional relationship with my tutor and with the course administrators at Birkbeck College on the occasions when I visited London to sit my examinations.

In the course of events, I met people in the Birkbeck Development Office and became the US representative when Birkbeck joined the British Schools and Universities Foundation. I now act in that role for the University of London Development Office. You can understand that it is not easy to discuss alumni giving with those who work in Development without being an annual donor.

You have been a long-standing donor and volunteer for the University. What has inspired your support?

I need to admit that I went to the University of Pennsylvania, at the time when it was the most expensive university in the US, free of charge. This made it possible for me to become a military officer, to go to graduate school, and to have a professional career. So I have been trying for a long time to pay it back. It seemed only natural to contribute to the University of London, as I gained so much from the course of studies and from the friendship of faculty and staff.

What prompted you to choose this type of giving?

The Ivy League schools in the States encourage both regular giving and legacy giving, and I have included Penn (University of Pennsylvania) in my Will. It seemed only natural to do the same for the University of London. 

What do you hope your donation will achieve?

My gifts to Penn and to the University of London are so small that I don’t expect anything. But taken together with everyone else, they are important. This kind of money is transformative for students and faculty alike.

What advice would you give to anyone else who is considering leaving a gift in their Will?

Don’t put it off.

John Lucas studied for a BSc in Engineering with Northampton Polytechnic, now City, University of London, graduating in 1947. He generously donated 25% of his estate to the central University of London, as well as leaving 25% to City, University of London.

John Lucas studied for a BSc in Engineering with Northampton Polytechnic, now City, University of London, graduating in 1947.

Soon after graduation, John began his career at Foster Wheeler, a large engineering consultancy in the oil industry. Throughout his long and distinguished career, John progressed through the ranks of the company and eventually was appointed as Director. John’s career allowed him to travel extensively, spending large amounts of time in the Middle East, South Africa, the USA, Colombia and Europe. 

When John passed away, he generously donated 25% of his estate to the central University of London, as well as leaving 25% to City, University of London.

This unrestricted gift to the University has had a tremendous impact on our work, including part-funding the appointment of a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University's Institute of English Studies (IES), to develop a Toolkit for Inclusion and Diversity in English Studies (TIDE). You can read more about the Fellowship, which also received funding from the Convocation Trust, on our website.

Dr Winn enjoyed a long and fulfilling career working in various hospitals in England. In 2017, she left 25% of her estate to the University of London.

Dr Pauline Winn was born in London but grew up in Belfast. She commenced her medical studies at Queen’s University Belfast but soon transferred to the University of Edinburgh so that she could live independently in a city she loved. She graduated in medicine and surgery in 1950 and, following work as a hospital doctor, she undertook further graduate studies in psychiatry. Thereafter followed a fulfilling working life in various hospitals in England, where she worked as Associate Specialist in Psychiatry until her retirement, devoting her entire life to her work. 

Pauline’s friends and family remember her as an amusing, sharp-witted and deeply caring person, who maintained her interest in medicine and psychiatry to the very end of her life. 

Pauline left 25% of her estate as an unrestricted gift to the University of London. Gifts like the one received from Pauline support the University’s academic mission, including enabling students from around the globe to access world-class education, whether through our distance learning programmes, on campus at our Institute in Paris or at the School of Advanced Study in the heart of London.

John Casey was a devoted and inspiring teacher who trained some of the leading coin specialists at work in the UK today. In 2016, he left his books and 10% of his estate to the Institute of Classical Studies.

Professor Greg Woolf, former Director of the Institute of Classical Studies in the School of Advanced Study, reflects on a gift bequeathed to the Institute library from his esteemed colleague, John Casey:

“John followed an unusual route into academic life. He was an assistant librarian at the Institute of Bankers when he first caught the archaeology bug, helping out at a rescue excavation in London. Four years of evening classes at the Institute of Archaeology (now part of UCL) and a year’s master’s degree at Cardiff led him to a post in the University of Durham in 1972 where he taught for his entire career, retiring in 2000. Always a Londoner at heart, he escaped to the big city whenever he could and retired here.

John’s was a familiar face in the Institute’s library and also at conferences on Roman Britain. He had a deceptively angelic smile and a wicked sense of humour. He was rather expert at deflating any lecturer who verged on the pompous, but it was always done with a sense of fun, and in a characteristically provocative way. 

He excavated Roman sites all over England and Wales and published widely, but his great love was the study of Roman coins. He pioneered archaeological approaches to coinage, showing how much economic and social history could be extracted from them. He was a devoted and inspiring teacher, who travelled with a small coin collection of his own. I remember the thrill as an undergraduate when halfway through a seminar John produced a Roman solidus (a gold coin of the later empire) and passed it around the room. He trained some of the leading coin specialists at work in the UK today.

John did not tell us about the gift in advance, nor did he specify exactly how we should spend it, but of course we have many ideas. He left us his books as well as a tenth of his estate, so the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies (the Combined Classics Library) benefits doubly. We already have a room dedicated to numismatics, the study of money including coins, which we have renamed in his honour, and his collection will make that even more valuable for the researchers who travel here from all over the UK and beyond.

The John Casey Fund will help us develop the library in new ways, extending our programme of digitisation, cataloguing our rare books, and providing some of the new equipment and services that 21st century readers need. I like to think he would be pleased to think of a new generation – his students’ students in fact – benefiting from his gift.”